Steam, and the gift of game...

[mrHappy]

I've been wanting to get COD4  (and preferably on steam) for some time, but I am not really to fond of the part where I have to pay $69.99 + tax, which in my case is 25% making the game almost $90. Especially if I can get the game for the US price which is only $49.99.

I'm hoping that some of the american DC users are using steam and would help me getting the game by them buying it and sending it to me as a gift.
I would prefer to send the money through paypal or donationcredits* to whomever decides to help me. Then again I don't really think there are other possibilites.

*hopefully someone can refresh my memory here, I can't remember if paypal takes an amount of the donated money, IE you donate $10 but paypal takes some of it and you end up with only ... $9 for donationcredits.

[y0himba]

I can help you out.  My wife says the money needs to go in Paypal first though, and since I am poor, that's a necessity.  Contact me by Email, y0himba(at)gmail(dot)com.  I already have COD4, so I will purchase it and then gift it to you over Steam.

[mouser]

paypal fee calculator: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=11809.0

(paypal takes their fee from any donation before we even see it)

[mediaguycouk]

I thought donationcoder absorbed the paypal fee meaning you should give a little more

[Deozaan]

I don't like the idea of installing a program that downloads and manages and installs games for me.

Is Steam really all it's cracked up to be? Does it phone home or run when it's not supposed to? Does it hide itself as a service that runs automatically when my PC starts up?

[y0himba]

A:  Phoning home is useful unless you are running a stolen or "warez" version of a software, not a concern for valid, non-malicious software. (not including malware etc.)  Don't believe the hype.

B:  Services don't "hide" unless they are malicious.  If it is a valid service it is easily viewable through the services snap-in or console commands.

C:  Yes it runs when Windows starts up if you choose to let it.  It only installs a service under Windows Vista.

To me, Steam is a Godsend.  I can format this computer, or any other one, install Steam, and all my Steam purchased games are there.  The download takes a while of course, but in the end it's just like offsite storage.  I can also back up all my game files to a DVD, reinstall Steam, and restore, only needing updates to reduce the download time.

You can only log into your account one time, meaning no multiple logins to the same user account.

The communication system in Steam has evolved to include IN GAME chat to anyone on your friends list, either voice or text.  You can chat with multiple people and hold voice conferences with many folks talking at once, all over Steam. 

It's a plus in my opinion. 

[mrHappy]

Thanks for offering your help y0himba , a mail has been sent.

To me, Steam is a Godsend.  I can format this computer, or any other one, install Steam, and all my Steam purchased games are there.  The download takes a while of course, but in the end it's just like offsite storage.

You can also choose to backup your games or, if you have them on a different partion just reinstall steam in that directory.

And as a small sidenote, you can't play TF2 (on the pc) without steam

[y0himba]

I bought it, but I have never really gotten into TF2.  It's unbelievable how much I love COD4 though, but my true addiction is Counterstrike:Source. 

I replied to your email BTW.  You can add me on Steam as a friend, I included all the information.  Be sure to email me with any questions or concerns.

[f0dder]

STEAM rocks - and it generally means you don't get nasty & crappy driver-abusing software protections on the games.

[p3lb0x]

Also, apparently steam is portable. I didn't have to reinstall it after I reinstalled windows

[Deozaan]

Another topic here was about Audiosurf, but I didn't download it because it required Steam. Maybe I'll reconsider...

[f0dder]

I was pretty skeptical about STEAM when it first appeared, and I had this whole "ah christ, now I need a silly launcher app just to play games" - but I quickly grew to like it. You don't need to have it auto-start with windows, you have a convenient game-list of all your STEAM games, it's easy to purchase online (although with big game releases, the servers tended to be a bit overburdened. That should be fixed with multi-server download which was introduced a while ago, though), auto-updates, et cetera.

But one of the biggest benefits, to me anyway, is still that the games tend not to have über-intrusive copy protection, instead relying on STEAMs much gentler mechanism.

[jgpaiva]

I think Steam was the best thing that happened in the gaming world.
I had never bought genuine games prior to using steam, and since I use it, I've already bought 3! (which, coincidentally, were the only games I played in that time, except for the free trackmania nations).
It's easy to buy, it's usually way cheaper than in stores (at least around here), and it's MUCH more confortable than having to carry and save the CDs and cases.
As a person who tends to loose "real world" stuff, I think this is the perfect solution to keep everything at hand

[Lashiec]

Is Steam really all it's cracked up to be? Does it phone home or run when it's not supposed to? Does it hide itself as a service that runs automatically when my PC starts up?

It's not perfect, but it's much better than similar services, either devised for gaming (Direct2Drive and the like), or for music and video (yeah, that big sack of crap called iTunes). The unique problem I see in its future it's the reliance on DRM, which poses the question of what will happen with your games if Valve goes out of business (or another company buys them). You could say that something like that will never happen with Valve, but bigger companies fell despite it seemed they could do nothing wrong. Gabe Newell said unofficially that they will provide something if that happens, so I guess it's not a problem (we can always use other methods anyway *cough*).

Something that also worries me is that everyone seems to be in a "me too" stance, and they're releasing their own services, complete with frontends: Microsoft, Stardock... prolly others like EA or Activision could join the fest, as well as more "niche" companies.

Other than that, it's pretty nice. Not intrusive, takes care of your games, you can use as a frontend for other games you have in the computer, and the terms of service are reasonable. The option of letting you download the games as many times as you want it's what convinced me. That, and getting some free games thanks to my copy of Half-Life, and the nice offers they have for older games.

Personally, I'm more interested in things like Good Old Games, which don't tie you in any way, and have excellent prices. Of course, we're talking about games not available in physical shops, so I guess companies will not embrace it as an alternative method (with all the crazy talk about piracy, low prices and no DRM for PC games scare 99% of the game companies), but I think it will find its place in the net. In my case, I'm drooling over the perspective of almost stealing Operation Flashpoint and Fallout so...

[Deozaan]

So I just clicked the button in Steam to download the Audiosurf demo. Apparently it downloaded and preloaded Audiosurf (Full game) first, then started on downloading the demo... Not cool.

Anyway, I'll give it a try for a while more, though I haven't bought (or played, I guess) a new retail PC game for a couple years because I'd rather spend the money on console games.

Spore will be the first new PC game I've played/purchased since Oblivion, I think.

[Shades]

My Problem with STEAM is the software itself. The concept behind it I wholeheartedly agree upon.

Trying to download the Trackmania Nations game through STEAM was impossible over here. It would continue the download when the connection broke. It wouldn't even let me start a new download from the same game (only after a re-install from STEAM it would).

I was finally able to do so by using plain simple HTTP connection through a SOCKS proxy. Steam gave me too much troubles but the concept behind it is a great one.

[ThalSwe]

In the spirit of this thread i'll borrow it due to Steams reginal restrictions. Been wanting to get "Beyond Good and Evil" for a while now and as I really enjoy Steam and use it a lot I would love to get a hold of this game as well.
Can donate the money over PayPal or in the spirit of giving games gift back a game to the person who helps me (a slightly more expensive one that is so the person benefits from the trade).

Thanks in advance

If nothing else I can be found as Chris Fifty-Two (or ThalSwe) on Steam and always up for a friendly game or two.

[wreckedcarzz]

Something that also worries me is that everyone seems to be in a "me too" stance, and they're releasing their own services, complete with frontends: Microsoft, Stardock... prolly others like EA or Activision could join the fest, as well as more "niche" companies.

Personally, I don't use Steam - I find it idiotic to buy a game online, and in order to do so, download a client to "manage" my games. And it has to stay installed, taking precious MB (my laptop had 555MB free of a 30GB XP partion this morning, now at 1.2GB due to cleaning it up as much as possible).

Anyways, EA jumped on the bandwagon long ago - EA Download Manager, a program I used to purchase and download Need for Speed Carbon Collectors Edition, has gone through lots of stages over several years. Same issue. I no longer have Carbon, or EADM, installed.

In a way, it's convenient - no disks, but then you have the 2 hour waiting period for the 4-6GB to download, whereas you have a disk and it is just install and play.

[f0dder]

Personally, I don't use Steam - I find it idiotic to buy a game online, and in order to do so, download a client to "manage" my games.

What exactly makes this idiotic? You get reliable and multi-server (ie, FAST even on phat pipes like 20mbit ADSL) downloads using the steam client - more reliable than using a typical browser HTTP or FTP download.

And it has to stay installed, taking precious MB (my laptop had 555MB free of a 30GB XP partion this morning, now at 1.2GB due to cleaning it up as much as possible).

Less than 50 megabytes for the STEAM platform on my system, and that seems to include some cache files etc. Keep in mind that this platform is used and shared by the installed games... if you take a typical StarForce protected game, you probably have executables of at least 16 megs per game, because that protection system bloats up the executables bigtime. With STEAM games, you don't (or at least shouldn't ) get that.

Anyways, EA jumped on the bandwagon long ago - EA Download Manager, a program I used to purchase and download Need for Speed Carbon Collectors Edition, has gone through lots of stages over several years. Same issue. I no longer have Carbon, or EADM, installed.

It's a real shame that several companies feel they need their own system. It's obvious why, though: cash. Might be solvable by doing some peering contract though, where other companies could use the STEAM system, and Valve would only get a small cut of the price.

In a way, it's convenient - no disks, but then you have the 2 hour waiting period for the 4-6GB to download, whereas you have a disk and it is just install and play.

It's extremely convenient when you have fast broadband. Also, STEAM often lets you pre-download game content before the game is released, meaning that on release day you might not have to download any content at all, or perhaps a few hundred megabytes - meaning almost instant play as soon as the game is released.

Furthermore, you don't need to download the larger games, at least Valve's own titles when purchased on DVD still use the STEAM system. This means you get the same auto-update ease, the same non-messy game protection system etc., and without requiring a massive broadband line for the download.

The only real problem I can see with STEAM is that you need to have an internet connection to use it. Feels a bit silly for single-player games. But you can always choose "go offline" from the STEAM menu, which allows you to play your single-player (and LAN?) games without being connected to the net.

[jgpaiva]

The only real problem I can see with STEAM is that you need to have an internet connection to use it. Feels a bit silly for single-player games. But you can always choose "go offline" from the STEAM menu, which allows you to play your single-player (and LAN?) games without being connected to the net.

Also, that same method allows you to play something with your friends in LAN, without everyone actually owning the game

[wreckedcarzz]

<rant & complaining>

I just don't like the fact that I need yet another program to do yet another task. I go through my list of programs every couple days looking for anything I can get rid of. It sounds weird, but when your strapped for hard drive space (C:\ has 12.2GB free as of right now) and you have to go to extremes to get to where your at now (free space wise), you really don't want something else that will have to have it's download caches cleaned and the friend's list files and whatnot.

I have Xfire; Xfire launches the games I have, and lets me chat while I pwn (or be pwned, but the latter is much less in comparison to the former). To me, all I want is a friends list and a game launcher and Xfire handles that exactly as I want. Personal preference, but it just works with me.

And then you have those STEAM-ONLY games... whats up with that? I can't get a copy for my offline computers? What if you don't have internet or something, but you want this game, but only STEAM has it (no stores). It is like a monopoly on games. I had to *get* a copy of a game from a non-steam *source* just the other day for this reason- my laptop is offline 1/2 the time (school, on the go, etc).

The TB drive is here. I own a 111GB drive. 70GB is games already, Vista takes ~15GB equaling about 85GB. Add on Visual Studio, a slew of Adobe apps, all my hardware drivers, my 6 GB of family photos, all the usual programs, and you run short way before you think you will. I have to turn off System Restore, Hibernation, and even my SWAP FILE in order to keep enough space (I have hit below a GB free on C: before). It's like cramming 5 20 pound computers into 1 50 pound capacity box. You do the math.

</rant & complaining>

[f0dder]

I just don't like the fact that I need yet another program to do yet another task. I go through my list of programs every couple days looking for anything I can get rid of. It sounds weird, but when your strapped for hard drive space (C:\ has 12.2GB free as of right now) and you have to go to extremes to get to where your at now (free space wise), you really don't want something else that will have to have it's download caches cleaned and the friend's list files and whatnot.

AFAIK steam doesn't have "download caches", it has game content files (.gcf?). Those can be backed up & deleted, if you need space. Or just deleted, if you don't mind re-downloading. Just how much space does friend lists occupy? I can't imagine it'd be even a megabyte...

And then you have those STEAM-ONLY games... whats up with that? I can't get a copy for my offline computers? What if you don't have internet or something, but you want this game, but only STEAM has it (no stores). It is like a monopoly on games. I had to *get* a copy of a game from a non-steam *source* just the other day for this reason- my laptop is offline 1/2 the time (school, on the go, etc).

There's lots of games that are only available for download on the internet and aren't present in physical stores - how's this any different from STEAM? Remember, you can "go offline" in STEAM, and play the games without being connected to the internet.

The TB drive is here. I own a 111GB drive. 70GB is games already, Vista takes ~15GB equaling about 85GB. Add on Visual Studio, a slew of Adobe apps, all my hardware drivers, my 6 GB of family photos, all the usual programs, and you run short way before you think you will.

Sure, you can run out of space quickly. I only have 2x74gig in my workstation. The ~50megs the STEAM platform itself occupies is still pretty inconsequential, though, imho - especially if it means individual game executables will land at ~2meg instead of ~16meg. Try solving the equation "50 + 2n < 16n"

Also, how often do you use your family photos etc? Those should probably be moved to an external USB drive, and be backed up to DVD media or a raid-mirror file server (DVD media would be the cheapest, though ).

I really don't see what STEAM has to do with free disk space, anyway.

[Deozaan]

In the spirit of this thread i'll borrow it due to Steams reginal restrictions. Been wanting to get "Beyond Good and Evil" for a while now and as I really enjoy Steam and use it a lot I would love to get a hold of this game as well.
Can donate the money over PayPal or in the spirit of giving games gift back a game to the person who helps me (a slightly more expensive one that is so the person benefits from the trade).

If Steam has Regional restrictions, how is it possible for someone to gift a game to you that is out of your region? I'm willing to help you if can explain a bit more what I'm supposed to do and how it works.

[ThalSwe]

You can only buy the games in Canada and USA and not in Europe where I live (or any of the many many other countries in our world). Its a choice from the publisher to simply not sell the games outside of North America. But its perfectly possible to buy the game as a gift if you live in any of those two countries and gift it to one of us...not so fortunate (gaming wise).

So if someone across the pond buys the game as a gift and sends it to my account I would be able to get and play it without a problem

[f0dder]

You can only buy the games in Canada and USA and not in Europe where I live (or any of the many many other countries in our world). Its a choice from the publisher to simply not sell the games outside of North America. But its perfectly possible to buy the game as a gift if you live in any of those two countries and gift it to one of us...not so fortunate (gaming wise).

What, they permanently don't sell outside Canada/USA? Considering Beyond Good & Evil is oldish, it can't be just a release date issue